Ms Ori Adia, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Coordinator in Ado Local Government Area in Benue, has a new name, ‘Mummy SaTo’.
For her, it is not just a name, but a call to action and compliance to stop open defecation in communities in her area.
Adia, is beneficiary of Lixil Technologies’ distribution of SaTo pans made available to toilet business owners at reduced prices to sell to community members at affordable prices.
For the WASH Coordinator, like many other Toilet Business Owners (TBOs), access to SaTo pans has proven to be a huge success in Nigeria’s fight against open defecation and efforts to promote hygiene.
“When people see me, they say ‘Mummy SaTo is coming, no one defecates openly; there is no open defecation around me.
“For those who purchase SATO pans and have toilets, I give free soaps; we don’t sell Sato pans alone, we also sell cements and sanitary fittings at reduced prices”, she told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
SaTo pan use trap-door technology to transform an open pit into a closed one, designed in a simple, affordable, and easy to clean, and requiring less than 1L of water per flush.
It, therefore, improves the sanitation experience for users of open pits, drastically minimises bad odour and reduces passage of insects into pits.
In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that investing in sanitation and hygiene not only saves lives, but also supports child nutrition, growth and wellbeing; promotes environmental safety, bolsters education.
This has a positive impact on equity and dignity; provides a foundation for economic growth; and generally, supports the attainment of the other Sustainable Development Goals.
Sadly, a large proportion of Nigerians do not have access to basic sanitation services.
According to the WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASHNORM) 2021, an estimated 23 per cent of Nigerians (48 million people) defecate in the open, while only 44 per cent of the population has access to basic sanitation services.
Poor access to sanitation services is further complicated by the persistent lack of improved toilets in households and public institutions.
Therefore, acceleration in the provision of improved sanitation facilities is needed if Nigeria is to meet the SDG sanitation targets by 2030.
The SDGs No 6 seeks to achieve sustainable access to safely managed sanitation and hygiene. Nigeria has committed to this.
The Nigerian unveiled a National Action Plan in 2018 to provide safe, sustainable sanitation and hygiene services to Nigerians by 2030, with the goal to put an end to open defection by 2025.
But stakeholders believe significant mobilisation will be necessary to accomplish the ambition.
According to UNICEF, meeting this target is a daunting task especially in Nigeria, as an estimated 3.9 million new toilets will be required annually to move millions of households up the sanitation ladder by 2030.
According to the National Open Defecation Free (ODF) Roadmap, achieving an ODF Nigeria would require constructing nearly 20 million household toilets and 43,000 toilets in schools, health centres and public places.
This, would require an average annual investment of about N100 billion. This is approximately 75 per cent household investment with 25 per cent government contribution.
At the just concluded Toilet Business Owners’ Conference, calls were made for the promotion of Sanitation Marketing and Financing strategies to be promoted by Nigeria and development partners.
Participants at the conference said this would be done by strengthening sanitation markets and making available affordable finance options for households to build toilets.
According to Mrs Chizoma Opara, National Coordinator of Clean Nigeria Campaign, these strategies have led to the construction of thousands of improved toilets across the country.
This, she said has the potential to move millions of people up the sanitation ladder, towards an open defecation free country.
Opara, however, pointed out the huge role that awareness creation and behavior change communication would play in the national Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaign, saying it would be the smartest step forward.
According to Chisom Adimorah, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, there is a huge potential for private sector engagement and investment, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)to significantly enhance and sustain sanitation coverage in Nigeria.
She said 39.7 million businesses in Nigeria representing 96 per cent of all businesses in the country were MSMEs.
“MSMEs contribution to the national GDP is at 46.5 per cent, 39,654 of these businesses are classified under the WASH sector.
“They provide the lion’s share of employment in the country; they provide jobs for 60 million people and account for 77 per cent of national workforce.
“Despite constraints such as access to finance, political instability, policy uncertainties, structural challenges, many private firms have remained resilient”, she said.
According to Michael Adegbe, Leader, SaTo Nigeria, the organisation was poised to the achievement of safely managed sanitation using affordable technologies.
He said through its SaTo pans, sanitation businesses have been established, leading to the promotion of improved health and contributing to economic growth in the communities.
With or without SaTo pans UNICEF says a lot still needs to be done if Nigeria will meet open defecation eradiation targets.
Similarly, Dr Jane Bevan, UNICEF Chief of WASH, says Nigeria will need to build no fewer than 3.9 million toilets annually to meet the open defecation-free target by 2025.
Bevan said that current toilet construction in the country stood at between 180,000 to 200,000 toilets annually, a figure she described as inadequate.
“About 1.3 per cent of GDP or N455 billion is lost annually due to poor access to sanitation – health, health care savings and productivity.
“Every dollar invested in water and sanitation results in economic benefits ranging from 3 dollars to 34 dollars.
“Nigeria cannot continue business as usual or it will miss the target of 2025 and 2030. There is need to strengthen and scale up proven strategies to reach the country’s goals”, she said.
WaterAid Nigeria representative, Mr Solomon Akpanufot, noted that Nigeria must do things differently to achieve the ODF target by 2025, saying the sanitation sector was under a lot of pressure.
“If we must meet the goal of ending open defecation by 2025 and then the SDG6.2, which has to do with sanitation, the TBOs need to partner with all stakeholders.
“They also need to work with the government to ensure that every household and institution in Nigeria has decent toilet and makes use of the toilet,” he said.
Mr Chukwuma Nnanna, Executive Director, Toiletpride Initiative, said one of the biggest challenges in realising an open defecation-free Nigeriat was the lack of enabling environment for sanitation businesses to thrive.
Nnanna, who is also the convener of the conference, said that TBOs and sanitation entrepreneurs were yet to be mobilised to their full potential.
Nnanna said with the right incentives, TBOs would effectively contribute their quota to the national embarrassment called open defecation. (NANFeatures)
